St. Paul: Pedestrian injured after being run over by school bus

A St. Paul school bus driver, who recently had been cited for not yielding to a pedestrian, struck and injured a man while driving 26 children home Tuesday afternoon, Sept. 25.

The 65-year-old pedestrian was taken to Regions Hospital, where he was listed in fair condition on Wednesday morning.

The bus, carrying elementary school children from Jackson Preparatory Magnet, was turning left from southbound Western Avenue onto eastbound Aurora Avenue when it struck the man on the east side of the intersection. He was identified in a police report as James Henry Thomas, of St. Paul.

One of Thomas' legs was either pinned beneath the bus or had been run over, a witness said. The bus had to back up for paramedics to reach the man. Medics applied a tourniquet to Thomas' leg and took him to the hospital.

There is an unmarked crosswalk and no traffic light at the intersection, which is in a residential area, and there are no stop signs on Western Avenue, the street the bus was on. The accident happened about 3:15 p.m., four blocks from Jackson Preparatory in Frogtown.

The bus, contracted by the St. Paul Public Schools, is owned by Minneapolis-based Sunburst Transit, a subsidiary of St. Cloud Industrial Products Inc.

The driver was identified as Shoua Yang by St. Cloud Industrial Products owner Jim Schiffler.

Shoua Yang, 44, of St. Paul told authorities that he did not see the man crossing the street.

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Schiffler said Shoua Yang had been a company employee since September 2009 and had a previous incident on his record.

In March, Shoua Yang was cited for not yielding to a pedestrian in St. Paul. According to a police report, Shoua Yang hit a woman at Marion Street and Thomas Avenue at 8:30 a.m. March 7. The woman refused to give police her name and walked away from the scene.

During that incident, Shoua Yang was not driving a bus for the St. Paul district, but was transporting an empty bus from one site to another for the company, Schiffler said.

After the March incident, Shoua Yang was given additional training before he returned to driving, said Schiffler, who was not certain how long the training and leave of absence lasted.

Schiffler added that his company was "very concerned about the victim" and said he had yet to talk to Shoua Yang on Tuesday afternoon. The driver was placed on administrative leave pending an investigation.

There were no obvious signs he was impaired, police said.

St. Paul schools spokeswoman Toya Stewart Downey said the district has contracted with Sunburst Transit since the 2008-09 school year and that the company has a good record. The company has 22 buses driving for the district.

Stewart Downey said the district sent a bus to the scene to drive the children home. Counselors will be at Jackson Preparatory, which serves pre-kindergartners through sixth-graders, when the children arrive at school Wednesday morning.

Mara H. Gottfried contributed to this report. Tad Vezner can be reached at 651-228-5461.